Some Baseball at the 2016 NSCC

[Exhibitman]

After 14 in a row I'd say this was the worst National I've attended. It simply did not have the critical mass of dealers necessary to satisfy me because I look for obscure issues and ephemera and many vintage dealers either stayed home or brought limited inventory. 90% of what I saw was eBay inventory and most of the rest was not for sale because it was either auctioneer eye candy or museum priced. I picked up a few good items on Wednesday morning but nothing great, and spent the ensuing days filling in postwar mainstream cards on the cheap. Nice cards and great prices (no signs of price inflation in most inventory; quite the contrary) but not exciting. Some picks:

[irv]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

After 14 in a row I'd say this was the worst National I've attended. It simply did not have the critical mass of dealers necessary to satisfy me because I look for obscure issues and ephemera and many vintage dealers either stayed home or brought limited inventory.

I have never been to one but that is surprising to read considering the current hobby/price craze we have all been seeing lately?

Any thoughts as to why? Are people hoarding, waiting it out for higher prices or is it likely some other factor or a combination of many other things?

[Snapolit1]

One man's total bust is another one's perfect event. That's life. Depends what you are looking for and what your expectations are. I think a lot of people decided in January the AC show would be a bust for various reasons. Hopefully not too many Net 54 members were gunned down on the bad streets of AC.

[RayBShotz]

Yup. Thought it was great. Bought a ton of stuff.
RayB

Great autographs; love the fact that you took pictures of the guys. Shantz looks great for his age!

[Neal]

nice thread, great pics!

The AC National was great. I for one hope to see it there again.

[Exhibitman]

Partially logistics, Dale. A number of dealers I know west of the Rockies refused to travel to AC and set up, or brought only what they could carry on to a plane. Others did not see the financial value in the trip due to the cost of hotels; when the convention host hotels average over $300 a night (with taxes) on Friday and Saturday, it isn't the same dynamic as Chi or even CLE. I also got the feeling that there wasn't the commuter table-taking that you see in a great metro area like Chicago. The trip to NYC or even Philly is long enough to make it unattractive to do every day for 4-5 days straight. I tried a similar approach to the 1996 Anaheim show and decided after a couple of days that I was never going to do it that way again. When the show was there in 2006 I stayed at a hotel for it. The net result, I felt, didn't leave a lot of picking tables for me. I'd say about 5-7, and that includes some of the tables that were all mainstream postwar cards but presented at extreme discounts. I went home with over half my purchase funds intact. Not a good show for me.

Steve, it is to each his own. I go to the National to buy special items that I cannot buy on eBay or from the myriad AH's. Wednesday morning I picked up most of the better items I got: a Jim Thorpe strip card, 2 Diamond Dust punchboard cards, an oddball Koufax item. By Thursday those kinds of finds were finished. The rest of the time was mainstream because there just wasn't much of the other stuff to go through. Not that there's anything wrong with that, if that is who you are as a collector. Just not me. I came home with a stack of cards but they were all basic.

Still, as our co-member Robert S. is fond of saying, the worst day at a card show is better than the best day at the office.

[irv]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

Partially logistics, Dale. A number of dealers I know west of the Rockies refused to travel to AC and set up, or brought only what they could carry on to a plane. Others did not see the financial value in the trip due to the cost of hotels; when the convention host hotels average over $300 a night (with taxes) on Friday and Saturday, it isn't the same dynamic as Chi or even CLE. I also got the feeling that there wasn't the commuter table-taking that you see in a great metro area like Chicago. The trip to NYC or even Philly is long enough to make it unattractive to do every day for 4-5 days straight. I tried a similar approach to the 1996 Anaheim show and decided after a couple of days that I was never going to do it that way again. When the show was there in 2006 I stayed at a hotel for it. The net result, I felt, didn't leave a lot of picking tables for me. I'd say about 5-7, and that includes some of the tables that were all mainstream postwar cards but presented at extreme discounts. I went home with over half my purchase funds intact. Not a good show for me.

Steve, it is to each his own. I go to the National to buy special items that I cannot buy on eBay or from the myriad AH's. Wednesday morning I picked up most of the better items I got: a Jim Thorpe strip card, 2 Diamond Dust punchboard cards, an oddball Koufax item. By Thursday those kinds of finds were finished. The rest of the time was mainstream because there just wasn't much of the other stuff to go through. Not that there's anything wrong with that, if that is who you are as a collector. Just not me. I came home with a stack of cards but they were all basic.

Still, as our co-member Robert S. is fond of saying, the worst day at a card show is better than the best day at the office.

I can understand that! One would have to sell a lot of product just to break even let alone make a decent profit.

Thanks for the info.